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Book Cover for: (Don't) Call Me Crazy: 33 Voices Start the Conversation about Mental Health, Kelly Jensen

(Don't) Call Me Crazy: 33 Voices Start the Conversation about Mental Health

Kelly Jensen

Honor Book:Schneider Family Book Award -Teen (2019)
Talk openly about mental health with thirty-three diverse and empowering actors, athletes, writers, and artists in this Washington Post Best Children's Book. Contributors include: Kristin Bell, Nancy Kerrigan, S. Jae-Jones, Meredith Russo, V.E. Schwab, and Adam Silvera, among many others.

Who's Crazy? What does it mean to be crazy? Is using the word crazy offensive? What happens when a label like that gets attached to your everyday experiences?

To understand mental health, we need to talk openly about it. Because there's no single definition of crazy, there's no single experience that embodies it, and the word itself means different things--wild? extreme? disturbed? passionate?--to different people.

In (Don't) Call Me Crazy, actors, athletes, writers, and artists offer essays, lists, comics, and illustrations that explore a wide range of topics, including:

  • Their personal experiences with mental illness;
  • How we do and don't talk about mental health;
  • Help for better understanding how every person's brain is wired differently;
  • What, exactly, might make someone crazy.
If you've ever struggled with your mental health, or know someone who has, come on in, turn the pages . . . and let's get talking.

This award-winning anthology is from the highly-praised editor of Here We Are: Feminism for the Real World and Body Talk: 37 Voices Explore Our Radical Anatomy.

Book Details

  • Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
  • Publish Date: Oct 2nd, 2018
  • Pages: 240
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 8.90in - 7.00in - 0.70in - 1.00lb
  • EAN: 9781616207816
  • Recommended age: 14-18
  • Categories: Social Topics - Depression & Mental IllnessSocial Topics - Emotions & FeelingsSocial Topics - Eating Disorders & Body Image

About the Author

Jensen, Kelly: - Kelly Jensen is a former librarian and current editor at Book Riot and her own popular book blog, Stacked. She's the editor of two highly-acclaimed YA anthologies, Here We Are: Feminism For The Real World and (Don't) Call Me Crazy: 33 Voices Start The Conversation About Mental Health. Her writing has been featured in Bust Magazine, Fortune, Bustle, and more. When not working with words, she teaches yoga, hangs out with a motley crew of pets, and enjoys all of the black licorice no one else wants. Follow her on Instagram @heykellyjensen and her website kellybjensen.com.

More books by Kelly Jensen

Book Cover for: Here We Are: Feminism for the Real World, Kelly Jensen
Book Cover for: Body Talk: 37 Voices Explore Our Radical Anatomy, Kelly Jensen
Book Cover for: Uncommon Ground, Kelly Jensen
Book Cover for: Purple Haze, Kelly Jensen
Book Cover for: Building Forever, Kelly Jensen
Book Cover for: Renewing Forever, Kelly Jensen
Book Cover for: Chasing Forever, Kelly Jensen
Book Cover for: Let's Connect, Kelly Jensen
Book Cover for: Sundays with Oliver (Hearts & Crafts, 1), Kelly Jensen
Book Cover for: Shelf Life (Hearts & Crafts, 2), Kelly Jensen
Book Cover for: Photojojo!: Insanely Great Photo Projects and DIY Ideas, Amit Gupta
Book Cover for: The Complete Counting Series, Kelly Jensen
Book Cover for: Let's Go Out, Kelly Jensen
Book Cover for: Block and Strike, Kelly Jensen
Book Cover for: The City without End, Kelly Jensen
Book Cover for: To See the Sun, Kelly Jensen

Praise for this book

A Washington Post Best Children's Book of 2018

"Jensen has brought together sharp and vivid perspectives concerning mental-health challenges. Featuring writers such as Shaun David Hutchinson, Libba Bray, Adam Silvera and Esmé Weijun Wang, this book asks questions and provides real-life experiences and hope for the future."
--Washington Post, "Best Children's Books of 2018"

"This (crucially!) diverse essay collection spans race, gender, sexual orientation, career, and age to hopefully reduce the stigma around mental illness."
--Bustle

"Empowering . . . deeply resonant . . . With this diverse array of contributors offering a stunning wealth of perspectives on mental health, teens looking for solidarity, comfort, or information will certainly be able to find something that speaks to them. Resources and further reading make this inviting, much-needed resource even richer."
--Booklist

"Lively, compelling . . . the raw, informal approach to the subject matter will highly appeal to young people who crave understanding and validation . . . This highly readable and vital collection demonstrates the multiplicity of ways that mental health impacts individuals."
--Kirkus Reviews

"Thought-provoking . . . Misconceptions about mental health still abound, making this honest yet hopeful title a vital selection."
--School Library Journal, starred review

"This is a much-needed collection of writing about mental health and the impact it has . . . with mental health stigma unfortunately still being a serious problem, teens really need books like this right now."
--Cultured Vultures

"The spectrum of voices and stories is wonderful to read. Not only that, but it mixes already published pieces as well as original memoir type stories. (Don't) Call Me Crazy deals with the power of diagnosis/labels not being the same for everyone, and the inequality in the mental health discussion. It is an anthology that stresses individual experiences, support, and listening. If you want to read more about it, Jensen also includes a reading list. So it leaves you not only with more experience, but a jumping board of where to go next. It is equally hopeful, cathartic, inspiring and real."
--Utopia State of Mind